June 17, 2015

Last week, Signal’s EMEA team hosted an exciting event for our clients and friends in London, where the discussion centered on the importance of fusing data and identity through collaboration, and the ways in which Signal is driving innovation in this arena.

The roundtable drew an audience of brand marketers and publishers to the lovely Institute of Contemporary Arts. Joining from Signal’s team were Marc Kiven, Founder and CRO; Neil Joyce, Managing Director, EMEA; and Blane Sims, SVP, Product.

The audience and panelists achieved a consensus on a few points. First, it’s very difficult to connect all of an individual’s data into a single holistic profile. Second, brand marketers feel their companies aren’t currently doing customer identity well, but they agree that it is crucial to their business.

Key discussions during the panel included:

There is both a Data + Identity challenge facing marketers today.

The customer journey is difficult to understand due to fragmented siloed data – it’s easy to lose track of your customer signals.

We need to think beyond the cookie, this is about people-based engagement.

To manage all data types effectively, marketers must move beyond siloed user data to create known, unified profiles that power 1:1 customer relationships. The key to making this happen is identity.

“The main issue is when customers move from offline to online,” said Steve Laws from Callcredit, a data company and credit reference agency. “It’s difficult for marketers to tie in and capture the people who come through their doors. We need something more lasting than cookies.”

“Their data is coming in through multiple streams and touchpoints,” explained Ed Child, Head of Customer Data & Marketing Effectiveness, at Asda, Britain’s second-largest grocery retailer. “We need the right tools to connect that data as it happens and provide a seamless, personalized experience to our customers.”

The ability to reliably identify customers and act upon their past and present behaviors can be transformational for businesses. To do so without giving up control to walled gardens will require brands to come together to find solutions through collaboration.

With Signal’s first-party identity network, brands have stronger, persistent “always on” enriched user profiles that allow you to segment and target customers with stronger accuracy and certainty at scale.

Through collaboration, we have an incredible opportunity for marketers to identify, accurately target, and convert their customers in a way that provides a competitive advantage, drives equitable brand and customer relationships, and provides true solution ownership and security.

Thanks to all who came to our event in London! It was a smashing time.